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CALEDONIA, Ont. – Gordon Food Service (GFS) has recently joined the Preferred Partners Program offered at Kim Richardson Transportation Specialists as a way to grow their fleet of drivers.

GFS, with a major distribution centre in Milton, Ont., joined the program, which includes a revamped hiring process including a “Sales-Service Rep for a Day” module where potential candidates will e paid to participate as an observer to ride along with a seasoned driver for a day to see what the job entails and if they are interested in pursuing a career at GFS.

GFS has committed to joining Scotlynn Commodities and Trimac Canada as a Preferred Partner at KRTS and have loaned a tractor and trailer to the KRTS entry level AZ program with the plan, like Scotlynn and Trimac, that successful graduates from KRTS will gravitate to their companies.

Kim Richardson, president of KRTS said, “We are very pleased to be working with quality brand name organizations who see the value of putting some of their skin in the game and in return hiring professionally-trained entry level drivers from KRTS.”

As part of the Preferred Partner Program, companies also participate in extensive training with their company trainers and the partners actively recruit together to bring good people into the industry. Preferred Partners are encouraged to participate in the Commercial Driver Apprenticeship Program, something KRTS has been a contributing supporter to, and participant of, since day one.

Gordon Food Service North America’s largest family-owned broad-line food service distributor that is over 100 years old, and they understand that they need to be new and innovative in order to grow.

Cliff Baker, Vice President of Operations at Gordon Food Service in Milton has been working closely with KRTS. Baker said, “Our transportation team at GFS is excited to partner with KRTS, Inc. We are a safety oriented company and see great value in investing in our safety supervisor and his training team to produce long term career oriented sales/service drivers and make GFS an employer of choice. With the shortage of drivers in the industry it’s companies like KRTS that are making a difference in bringing young drivers back into this profession as a career rather than a stop-gap to something better. We have many long term employees at GFS and retention is extremely important to our continued success.”

KRTS launched their Preferred Carrier Program a decade ago and encourage all of their graduates to consider a career with one of their Preferred Carriers.

“For our customers, we have a responsibility to vet the industry and send them where they have the best chance for a successful, long-term career. We invest a ton of time in this area of our business, but it gives us a leg up on the competition. Adding a Preferred partner segment last year allows our clients to be educated on the best equipment in the business, hopefully go to work for a great company and earn a great wage – it’s a win/win.” Richardson said.

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